MAQUILADORA

[Dr. Goodword]

• maquiladora •

Pronunciation: mê-ki-lê-do-rê • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: A US or other foreign assembly plant located just below the Mexican border employing labor at a much cheaper rate than is possible north of the border. These factories assemble products that are then shipped north, tariff-free, back to the US.

Notes: We often write of words that are established in the language by virtue of media repetition. Today's word is one that has not set its roots because of media indifference. (I suppose it is rather long for a news medium.) Remember that the "qu" is pronounced [k].

In Play: According to Newsweek (May 20, 1991), "Since the mid-1960s US companies have been setting up maquiladoras in Mexico and shipping the tariff-free products back to American markets." The N.Y. Times claimed on May 8, 1997, "Many of those jobs have gone to maquiladoras, whose payrolls have expanded by 300,000 in two years." NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, was signed in 1994.

Word History: This Good Word is an American Spanish word that originally meant "the place where the miller gets his cut." Maquiladora is from Spanish maquila, meaning that portion of the flour or meal given to the miller in return for milling grain. Old Spanish picked the word up from Arabic makila "measured, measure of capacity" from the past participle of kala "to measure", during the Moorish conquest of Spain (711-1492). In Mexico and Central American, however, maquila has come to mean "factory for export goods" and maquilar, "to assemble for export". Exactly what happened to this word between Spain and Mexico has everyone scratching their heads.

[Brazilian dude]

When I saw this, I thought of (female) makeup artists (Portuguese maquiadora/maquiladora) but then realized I had misread it.

Brazilian dude

[Flaminius]

BD, are you sure the factory and make-up have no relation? I think French maquillage involves a lot of measuring and cutting here and there.

Flam

[Brazilian dude]

I had (mentally) read maquilladora, with two l's, not maquiladora. By the way, I had never heard of maquiladora before.

Brazilian dude

[KatyBr]

I've really used this word since it first appeared in yrdic WoTD, thanks for bringing it up again!

Katy

[Garzo]

Hurrah for Katy! Speedily deployed verbage!

There is something about make-up making one artificial. Such beauty is a figment.

-- Garzo.

[Brazilian dude]

This is what I found this morning:

Se recibió hace tiempo una consulta sobre el término maquiladora o maquila utilizado en México para referirse a cierto tipo de industria. Este término estaba acuñado en el español de México y aparecía ya en algunas enciclopedias. En la vigésima segunda edición del DRAE aparece ya el término maquiladora y éste nos remite a maquila. Se trata de un americanismo que tiene dos acepciones: "producción de manufacturas textiles para su exportación" y "fábrica destinada a la maquila". Igualmente, aparecen los términos maquilar: "importar materias primas, tratarlas y exportarlas" y maquilero: "perteneciente o relativo a la maquila".
De cualquier modo, cuando aparezca en una noticia puede conservarse este término, aclarando entre paréntesis su significado, y a partir de ahí, cada vez que aparezca el término, cambiarlo por un sinónimo más común en español. El consejero comercial de la embajada de México en España nos ha explicado la actividad de las industrias maquiladoras de su país, y tanto él como nosotros hemos llegado a la conclusión de que podemos utilizar ensambladoras como sinónimo de maquiladoras, ya que allí emplean el verbo maquilar con el significado de ensamblar. La cosa podría quedar así: "...las industrias maquiladoras (de ensamblaje) mexicanas han...", o "...las industrias maquiladoras (ensambladoras) mexicanas han...", y en el resto de la noticia debería escribirse: "...las industrias ensambladoras mexicanas ubicadas cerca de...", o "...las industrias de ensamblaje...". Ahora bien, cuando se utiliza maquiladora como sinónimo de fábrica (según nos indican en una nota remitida por nuestra delegación en México) conviene evitar el mexicanismo y emplear la voz fábrica de más fácil comprensión para todos los países hispanohablantes.

Brazilian dude

[Huia Iesou]

Garzo: If applied well, makeup enhances instead of painting over. It can also inspire women with confidence, making them truly beautiful by their air.

[gailr]

In all the US cities where I have lived, for every woman who generates public horror or amusement by too much (or just badly-applied) makeup, there is another who generates equal (and just as public) contempt because she does not wear it.

I think of Hamlet, contemplating Yorick's skull: "Now get you to my lady’s chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come." At least until the "assembly plants" in B_d's link come up with a new product line for women who must "put on their face" before setting foot outside.

-gailr

[Bailey]

"women who must "put on their face" before setting foot outside.

-gailr"
Eleanor Rigby, we are told; kept hers in a jar by the door for such contingency.

mark

[tcward]

This branch of the thread we have all floated down reminds me of those times when Tammye Faye (of Bakker infamy) often ate in the same little restaurant I enjoyed on occasion. Whenever I saw her I was still amazed that someone would apply so much stuff to her face.

-Tim

[gailr]

Whenever I saw her I was still amazed that someone would apply so much stuff to her face.

This elicits the same reaction I have upon seeing beaming toddlers after their first [self-inflicted] haircut: what, exactly, did they see when looking into that mirror?
-gailr

[Perry]

Old Spanish picked the word up from Arabic makila "measured, measure of capacity" from the past participle of kala "to measure", during the Moorish conquest of Spain (711-1492).

This reference to the origin of the word is very relevant to the discussion on "too much" and "too little" make up. I suppose in this case I am hard put to say where the extremes are. To paraphrase, I don't know much about women't makeup, but I know what I like.

PS: Howdy old friends!

[tcward]

Welcome back, Perry!!

-Tim